Paper 2
Teenage Horror and Travel Legend
“The Dormroom Death”
This story comes from a coworker of mine who is also a student at UCI. He, in turn, had
heard the story from his resident advisor during his first year of college, living in the dorms. This
story is fairly widespread throughout the UCI community, passed on among students. The
rendition offered to me by my coworker follows the same storyline that I had heard during my
first year at UCI. The story, as told to me by my coworker, was told to me in the parking garage,
overlooking Mesa court, where the story takes place.
“A long time ago in Prado Hall (in Mesa Court Housing Community) there was a dancer.
She was really stressed out about one of her dance auditions, so one day she decided she was
done and killed herself by hanging herself on the ceiling fan in her room. She is found by her
roommate and that’s why there are no ceiling fans in any of the dorms. The dancer now haunts
the Prado hall, especially the room that she died. Now any time people are in Prado Hall and
hear noises, it’s the dancer still practicing for her audition.”
The story could be some variation of “The Roommate’s Death” as discussed in The
Vanishing Hitchhiker. The roommate of the deceased is the one to find the dancer in their room.
As in “The Roommate’s Death,” this story also involves the death of a young woman, but instead
of being attacked by a strange man, the dancer in “The Dormroom Death” commits suicide
(Brunvand 57). “The Dormroom Death” for UCI only dates back to the 1970s, as seen in the
narrative published by New University in 2006. This version is also more dramatized to engage
its audience:
“In the 1970s, a student committed suicide in her room in Prado, a residence hall in
Mesa Court. Purportedly, she was a dance major living in one of the single rooms in Prado, one
of the two art halls in Mesa Court. Rumors say that before her suicide, she had been stressed out
for an upcoming dance audition, and hanged herself from the ceiling fan of her room. Although
her window blinds were down, people outside could see her silhouette spinning. However, they
thought she was practicing her dance routine. Eventually, residents from a neighboring hall
noticed that she was hanging from a rope”(Won, Wong, Tsay, Dubrow, & Backus).
When looking into the story further, there is revealed to be no archival information
linking this supposed suicide to an actual event (Lam).
“The Dormroom Death” would be classified as an urban legend. “The Dormroom Death”
legend has ties to long established rumors, such as “The Roommate’s Death.” The story has lived
on as a single moment that has happened in past, with no person connected to the original
narration, which disqualifies it from being a memorate or truth claim. “The Dormroom Death” is
told in an elaborate, story-telling manner that makes it an urban legend and not a rumor.
“The Dormroom Death” covers course themes about violence through the legend
narrative. Although in “The Roommate’s Death” the victim dies at the murderous hands of some
unknown stranger, in the UCI variation, the violent death comes at the dancer’s own hands
(Brunvand 58). The version published in New University gives more of a twisted story of “The
Dormroom Death,” as people had only thought she was practicing at first and had not realized
that she was dying. If someone had realized sooner, she could have been saved. This is also
similar to “The Roommate’s Death,” where if the roommate had opened the doors to the
scratches on the door, she could have saved her roommate (Brunvand 58). The story as narrated
to me by my coworker is believable and entirely possible. When I asked my coworker who had
told me the story if he thought it was true he replied, “Yeah, because it happens often.” The idea
of a student being pushed towards suicide because of increased pressures caused by an important
exam, or in this case, audition, is not easily dismissed. However, doubt can be cast on this story
as the dancer chooses to kill herself by hanging herself on the ceiling fan, but none of the dorms
in Mesa Court have ceiling fans.
The legend is placed in the 1970s, on the tails of the civil rights era and could be a
commentary on women’s rights. With the newfound freedom to study and be away from home,
the young woman is rife with stress and cannot handle the responsibility that comes with being a
student. This theme is also present in the original “The Roommate’s Death,” where the women
are away from home and participating in activities that are not feminine (Brunvand 61). The
payment, like the dancer in “The Dormroom Death,” for diverting from societal expectations is
death (Brunvand 61). The anxiety that is present comes from changing gender roles. The story is
told during a time where women were entering the public sphere, participating in activities that
had primarily been reserved for men.